Features & insight
Features and insight
Expert analysis, reporting and long reads on the platforms, people and strategies shaping social media.
Facebook AI Mode turns public Groups and Reels into a search engine, no citations included
Meta launched AI Mode globally on 15 June, pulling conversational answers from public Facebook content instead of showing links. For social marketers, it's a new visibility surface with an attribution problem: your posts may power the answer, but you might get zero credit.
Meta Business Agent billing starts 1 August at $2 per million tokens
The free trial for Meta's AI customer service agent across WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger ends 31 July. From 1 August, businesses will pay token-based pricing, with a second wave of service message charges following on 1 October.
Meta's Creator Fast Track offers up to $3,000 monthly, but history suggests the money won't last
Facebook is paying TikTok and YouTube creators guaranteed bonuses for three months. The real test is what happens when the cash stops, and Meta's track record on creator payments isn't encouraging.
TikTok adds 6-second view-through optimisation to Pulse Core for the first time
View+ turns TikTok's brand safety adjacency tool into a performance channel. Announced in the Q2 2026 Product Preview, the feature is currently live via allowlist for Max Pulse and Category Lineup campaigns in the US and Canada.
Substack hits 100,000 paid publications as creators use it as the loyalty layer above social
The platform doubled monetised publications in under a year, with creators treating it as the owned-audience hub fed by TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube discovery, not a replacement for algorithmic reach.
Twitch scraps Partner Plus revenue cap as platform rewards consistency over viewership spikes
The streaming platform removed the $100,000 annual cap on its 70/30 revenue split in January 2024, reshaping who makes sustainable income on the platform as retention edges out raw viewer numbers.
YouTube forces global membership repricing by 17 August: what creators must check now
YouTube will automatically adjust recommended membership prices for international members on 17 August 2026 to reflect current exchange rates. Creators have until the deadline to review the changes or set custom pricing, or YouTube applies its recommendations by default.
YouTube trains creators to negotiate brand deals as platforms race to formalise creator commerce
YouTube's five-part Brand Deal Desk series launched in July 2026 signals a strategic shift: platforms are no longer just hosting sponsorships but actively coaching creators to price, pitch, and structure them. The move follows YouTube's expansion of Creator Partnerships infrastructure and arrives as creator commerce matures into a $32 billion industry.
TikTok adds AI content slider: why giving users a dial, not just labels, matters
TikTok has quietly become the first major platform to let users reduce AI content in their feed with a slider control, rather than just labelling it. The shift marks a turning point in how social platforms handle the AI slop problem.
Instagram's Mosseri tells users: if you don't like AI content, don't use the feed
Meta removed its Muse Image feature on 10 July after backlash, but Adam Mosseri's public statement signals Instagram will label AI content, not filter it, forcing brands to compete in an AI-polluted feed for organic reach.
Pinterest launches AI content controls after user revolt over generative spam
The platform becomes the first major visual network to give users category-level controls to dial down AI-generated images, a move that could define how social media handles the flood of algorithmic slop in 2026.
Snap opens ad platform to AI agents via Model Context Protocol
Snapchat completed its MCP server rollout on 25 July, letting third-party AI tools plan and execute campaigns directly through its Marketing API. The move follows similar integrations by Meta, Google, Amazon, and Pinterest, part of a wider shift to agentic advertising workflows across the social ad ecosystem.
LinkedIn's AI ad tools promise 20% higher CTR, but creative volume is the real test
LinkedIn launched five AI creative features on 1 July targeting small advertisers with a bold performance claim. The 20% CTR lift hinges on running five or more ad variants, making this less about automation magic and more about whether you can actually produce the volume.
YouTube draws the line on AI content monetization: three categories that lose Partner Program access
YouTube's 16 July clarification splits inauthentic content into three distinct buckets, giving creators the clearest guidance yet on where AI-assisted work ends and unmonetizable template farming begins.
LinkedIn and X carry the worst AI slop problem, Pangram data shows
New analysis of over 1 million social media posts reveals LinkedIn's AI content problem is structural: the platform accounts for 62% of all detected machine-generated posts despite making up only a third of scanned content.
TikTok Shop slashes affiliate commissions with no warning, pushing creators to Amazon
TikTok Shop cut affiliate commission caps from 20% to 10-15% across beauty, supplements, and home goods in June with zero transition period, forcing creators and brands to rework economics overnight while Amazon and Pinterest hold rates steady.
Anniston Ward "Likes" Are Dying on LinkedIn While Invisible Interactions Gain Momentum
New LinkedIn data shows the metrics everyone watches are declining, yet engagement is actually growing. That paradox is the entry point into a broader argument about how we've been misreading what "influence" and "connection" mean online, and every metric means something different for each user depending on their goal.
